His Regret & Her Hope
by gingerwhovianrobotskeleton
Summary: TwoPart set during "Skin Deep". Mr. Gold sits in his cell thinking of the love he lost while a girl sits in a basement thinking of the life she never had and the man she never knew. Totally RumBelle! UPDATE 8/25/12: Bonus chapter set during the season finale
1. His Regret

**Hello all! So here's what happened. I could sleep last night. I've been very bummed and depressed lately and well... Rumpelstiltskin spins his troubles away, I write them away. This was spur of the moment, so it's a bit wordy. Hope you enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I solemnly swear I do not own _Once Upon a Time _or the characters mentioned.**

**His Regret**

"So, now that we've been honest which each other, let's remember how things used to be," Mr. Gold began once he had his object safely in his grasp. "Don't let these bars fool you. I'm the only one with the power around here," his voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "I'm going to be out of here in no time, and nothing between us will change."

The Evil Queen leaned as far as the iron cell would let. She donned her signature smirk as she whispered to him venomously, "We shall see." Still smiling, she slowly moved away from her seat on the couch and sauntered out of the room.

Mr. Gold watched her with disgust. It was no secret that Rumpelstiltskin hated Queen Regina with a passion, that same hatred carrying over into this world as pawnbroker and mayor. She ruined everything.

It was because of her that he was miserable. Sure, he had more money than anyone in town, and everyone that heard his (fake) name trembled in fear. As much as that had brought him temporary joy, he wasn't truly happy...

For a time, he was content with his life in the fairy tale world, happy even. He could've lived forever without anything happening between him and Belle. He wasn't interested in true love or getting married. He was just glad to have her around; to have someone to talk to everyday, have supper with, discuss books, or whatever else she wanted to talk about. All he had to do was keep her locked up in the castle and never let her outside.

A deal of his he ended up breaking.

He had made the mistake of asking about her life before he locked her up. She wanted to do so much. Go see the world, meet new people and creatures never heard of, and do oh-so many brave things. Rumpelstiltskin had seen enough of the world to last him many lifetimes (Which he had lived already), and he didn't really understand her enthusiasm for it.

But then she got that look in her eye; the look she always got whenever she read a good book. Whenever she read of knights and princesses and true love, she would sigh at times and wish she could have something like that. Of course, she never did this in front of him. He would watch her sometimes when she thought herself alone in the library. Sometimes he'd clear his throat, making his presence known if he really needed her for something. She would respond by closing her book and greeting him with a smile, ready to accomplish whatever chore he threw at her. She never let on to her loneliness even though he could feel it.

Once he saw the dreamy look on her face, his heart sank. He couldn't keep her forever; he'd already known that when he struck the deal for her. Thanks to his curse, he could live on for centuries while Belle, like every other beauty on Earth, would wither and die. He had given her permission to leave the castle to fetch straw for his spinning. Apprehensive, she asked, "You trust me to come back?"

"No, dearie. I suspect I'll never see you again," he had replied with a knowing grin, masking the sound of his breaking heart.

When she had left, he started spinning his wheel as he usually did when he needed to forget. But even the wheel didn't help. Now when he spun the wheel, he thought of the time when Belle had asked why he spinned so much... Which led him to remember how she would have hurt herself falling from the ladder if it weren't for Rumpelstiltskin catching her. The light shining through the window... The way the light illuminated her in his arms as if he'd caught an angel falling from Heaven-

He gave up on spinning the wheel and ran upstairs to work on his potions. He had concocted as much of the potions in his spellbook as he could given whatever supplies he had. When that didn't help, he tossed the spellbook aside and began expirimenting waht different potions did when mixed together. At one point, he'd caught the drapes on fire, and a green rash broke out on his arm.

"Last time I mix lavender with... whatever was in here," he had spat throwing the moldy jar to the side. He imagined what Belle would say about his incompetence-

Argh! he cursed himself for thinknig about her again. He was about to lose it! He thought about teleporting out of the castle, grabbing her from wherever she was, and locking her in the dungeon again.

Before he could do that, he heard a noise. It was the familiar sounds of humming he'd hear while his caretaker cleaned.

He looked out the window and saw her. He couldn't believe it. Belle, his Belle, had come back. And she had a basket full of straw. But... why? he thought. Before he could figure it out, she was about ten feet from the front door.

Not wanting to seem desperate, he ran down the stairs as fast as he could; almost tripping at one point.

He sat himself down at the wheel and started spinning whatever straw he could find. When she entered the great hall, he casually commented that he was beginning to run out of straw even though he had at least another basket full waiting upstairs. She tried coercing him to admit he was happy to have her back. Of course he was, but Rumpelstiltskin would never admit it.

She then asked him about his son, which he promised to tell her about when she returned. He told her only the half truth. He had lost him and has been alone ever since. No one else knew the whole story except for him, Bae, and that cursed Blue Fairy that talked Bae into leaving him.

Belle showed true concern for him. This was surprising to him for no one else ever showed concern for him; except for Baelfire, but that was hundreds of years ago. He asked, finally, what he had asked himself earlier, "Why did you come back?"

She had said something changed her mind when she was intent on leaving. Before he could ask what it was, she placed a chaste kiss on his lips. His eyes drifted closed as he felt the soft, sweet taste of her skin, committed every little detail to memory in the short-yet sweet kiss. A warmth had started to spread through him. He wasn't sure what it was, but a weight was lifting off of his shoulders. Belle was happy by this. She held the sides of his face and said, "True love's kiss can break any curse."

His eyes widened. He pushed away from Belle, mentally willing what dark powers he might have lost back to him. He had looked at his hands, thankful he was still the same. He asked her who had told her. Once Belle had uttered the word "she", he ran over to the mirror, pulling the curtain down in one swipe. He shouted and cursed at the Evil Queen through the mirror. He knew she was watching them; her and that damn genie!

Belle was concerned for him. Without thinknig, he began to lash out at her, claiming she was in cohorts with Regina all along; she had betrayed him. She claimed it was true love, but he wouldn't hear any of it.

No one could ever love him. Not even Belle. Not even his wonderful, beautiful Belle who had talked about love being layered; a mystery to be uncovered. No one as pure and innocent as her could ever love a foul, heartless beast like him.

He threw her into the dungeon just like he did her first night, locking the door behind her. He went off on a rampage. He had grabbed his old walking stick and began destroying everything in sight. All of his heirlooms he had earned from petty deals were demolished. His glass display case destroyed. He swung and swung until his arms weighed down in exhaustion. He let out an anguish cry, doubling over the destruction he had made. He glanced over at the table. He saw his tea set.

With his rage giving him a new rush of adrenaline, he stomped over to the set. He picked up each tea cup one by one, throwing them across the room, shattering againt the wall in a cloud of dust. He picked up the last teacup, but paused when he saw the chip. The same cup Belle chipped her first night at the castle. The one he made a habit of drinknig out of everyday to show her that it didn't bother him. He wanted to throw it against the wall more than anything in the world. He wanted to prove that he could never love; just as he could never be loved in return.

But he couldn't. Despite the pain that wreaked through his chest, he couldn't destroy it.

He roughly put the tea cup back in it's spot on the tray and walked away, slowly coming back to his senses. He glanced back at the uncovered mirror. He knew the Evil Queen saw the whole thing. She probably sat there snacking on orderves as she laughed at his rampage. She would've seen the cup. Regina now knew his weakness.

Weakness thy name was Belle.

Even though she could never love him, he knew he would risk anything to keep her safe. He couldn't keep her here. He couldn't keep her here and just forget that he loved her. He had to banish her. He needed her to leave for her own sake.

Mr. Gold sat in his cell, looking at his precious teacup. He caressed his thumb over the chip and held it gently. This was the only momento he had of Belle. He still had his vast library buried somewhere in his house, but he had that long before she came into the picture. He had that teaset for a long time too, but this was her cup. The one she worried she'd get a beating for just because she dropped it. The cup was her. She wasn't just another cup in a pretty teaset. She had something more special. Something that made her stand out; just like the missing glass made this cup stand out. She was a flicker of light in a sea of darkness.

Now, she was gone.

Many nights he regretted letting her; just as she said he would. He wanted to keep her safe. He thought sending her home and proving that he didn't love her anymore would keep her safe from the Evil Queen. Never did he think she would be in more danger back in her own village. He father had banished her and tortured her just because she had decided to go with Rumpelstiltskin. She resorted to comitting suicide. He had guessed that death faced her either way.

"If I kept her here," he would tell himself, "I would at least had a chance to protect her."

He blamed Maurice for his lack of sympathy towards his own daughter. He blamed Regina for tearing them apart.

He choked back a sob as he cradled the cup closer to his chest. It was easy to blame others for what had happened.

He knew, though, that he was the one who drove her away, just like Baelfire. Deep down, he knew it was all his fault.

***sniff* **

**My whole life! Don't worry RumBelle fans, I'm promise part 2 will be a little more... uplifting.**

**Reviews are appreciated.**


	2. Her Hope

**Hello! So part two has a slightly different format. While Rumpelstiltskin's story mostly told of his point of view in "Skin Deep", Belle's is more broader and goes through what was going with her from the time the curse began (sort of) to the end of episode 12. I hope you enjoy!  
**

**DISCLAIMER: Again, I do not own OUaT or it's characters**

**Her Hope**

_Lost…_

Lost was the perfect word. It described a lot about a situation you weren't exactly sure of. It was the perfect word for her situation.

She sat in a dark room that was underground. She knew she was underground because the only window in the room was small and right under the ceiling. She remembered what basements were like, but her memories weren't as clear as one would think. All she could remember was this tiny room and its plain walls.

She had been there for as long as she could remember. Her only companion an aloof nurse. The nurse had certain coldness about her. She wasn't particularly scary with her pinned back auburn hair, white uniform, and light complexion. She actually looked as if she had been a model of some sort in her youth.

Her eyes were different. Her eyes looked as if they held every dark secret in the world. It was the nurse's eyes that scared her the most.

The only time she actually left the room was when the nurse would get her for her daily bath or to stick needles into her skin, which made her feel woozy and numb shortly after. She only ever saw three people when she would walk the underground floors: the nurse, a burly janitor with olive skin and greasy black hair, and a woman.

The woman didn't visit as often as the nurse did, but when she did, she would simply look through the flap and smirk at her. She would look at her as if she were a toy that she would never share with anyone else. Then she would leave, satisfied that she was in her room. Every visit from the woman consisted of that.

Until one night, everything changed.

The moon had shone through the window of her small room, street lights hitting certain spots on the opposite wall. This was normal for her to lie down and watch the light spots as they moved across the wall as the night progressed. This usually helped her to fall asleep.

That night, she heard a loud tick. It sounded like a giant clock. Once she heard that tick, the bells in her head started ringing and the giant light bulb in her head suddenly clicked on. She sat upright as if waking up from a nightmare.

She felt something tugging at the back of her head, something urging her to remember something, something important.

But she couldn't remember. Nothing came to mind.

The only thing that was different was her awareness. She knew she couldn't remember anything. She had stepped out of a giant and haze and realized she couldn't remember the normal things that people should remember. Birthdays, family, friends, first days of school… She couldn't recall any of it. She didn't even know why she was in this tiny, colorless room in the first place. She had no clue how long she had been there.

…

The next day, the nurse got her for her daily bath. As the nurse scrubbed her back with a sponge, she suddenly spoke to her.

"_Why am I here_?" she had asked

The nurse paused in her scrubbing. After a moment, she replied, "_It's important that you have good hygiene."_

"_No, not why am I bathing_," she corrected. "_Why am I here? Why do I have to sleep in that small room_?"

The nurse didn't reply. She stared at her with cold eyes. All of a sudden, she threw the sponge down, grabbed the girl roughly by the arm (Not bothering to dry her off) and dragged her back to her room. She pushed her inside and locked the door. She came back a minute later and threw her hospital gown into the room, forgetting that she was naked.

She grabbed her gown with shaky hands and slipped it over her. She sat back on her bed and stared at the window high above her. Why had the nurse acted like that? All she did was ask a simple question. Did the nurse not want her to know why she was there?

Later that day, the woman paid her a visit. She looked through the flap like she normally did on her visits. Except this time, she spoke to her through the flap.

"_Hello, dear_," she greeted with a condescending smile.

This threw the girl off of her game. She had never heard the woman speak before. Her voice was a sweet as honey, but with a hint of poison. She nervously replied with a small hello.

Suddenly, the woman opened the giant metal door to her room. The girl acted on instincts and pressed herself against the wall by her bed. "_What are you doing_?" she remembered asking in a weak voice.

"_Nothing to worry about_," the woman said assuring, but her face didn't match her tone.

The nurse came in with a syringe filled with a clear-green liquid. She grasped the girl's arm tight and injected the liquid into her bloodstream. Before she could protest, her legs started to wobble and her mind went foggy...

_...She sat in a large library reading a thick, leather-bound book. Millions of books surrounded her and the stuffy, green chair she occupied provided all of the comfort in the world._

_The story she read was exciting. She read of a stable boy posing as a prince, who he happened to resemble; almost as if they were long lost twins. They had switched places to see what life was like on the other side. What they didn't count on was the evil plot to have the prince murdered. She was about to get to the exciting part when all of a sudden, the giant doors behind her flew open._

_"Belle!" bellowed a familiar voice._

_The girl turned around to face the master of the castle. He was a man of medium height with leathery skin the color of faded gold. His sand-brown hair curled from the roots and his eyes were dark, lacking the normal amount of pupils humans had._

_The man's form and aura was enough to put anyone at unease. But she wasn't afraid of him. Actually, she wondered what he wanted now._

_"Yes?" Belle asked closing the book over her thumb so she wouldn't lose her place._

_"I thought we had an agreement," he began menacingly, walking the distance of the room to where she stood. "You were allowed to only look at the books when you finished cleaning the library."_

_"But I did," she answered simply._

_The man looked at her as if he didn't believe anything she said. "What was that?" he asked, confusion hitching his voice._

_"I dusted and wiped his whole place from top to bottom," she smiled proudly._

_He stared at her a moment before letting his gaze linger over the room; the high shelves stacked with dozens of books, and the afternoon sun shining through the windows thanks to her method of pulling back all of the drapes. Everything was clean just as she said. He then looked back at her with the same dumbfounded expression. "B-but," he started to stutter, "you just started this morning."_

_"It was nothing," she shrugged. "I can be a pretty quick cleaner once I get into the rhythm of it." She then leaned over the chair to grab another book she had read earlier. The flap fell open revealing the pages slowly coming apart from the binding. "You should take care of your books better than this," she scolded motherly._

_He looked at the book and back to her, a grin painting his face. "Well then, it's good that I have a caretaker to make sure the books don't fall to disrepair," he then laughed his impish little laugh he always used when making a joke._

_Belle smiled at that._

_"Well, no matter than," he clapped his hands together. "A deal is a deal; the library is yours to keep as long as you read on your own time."_

_"Oh, thank you!" excitement bubbled in her stomach. Without thinking, she gave him a big hug._

_She felt his body tense and she quickly pulled away, almost forgetting he wasn't the hugging type._

_"Oh, I'm sorry-"_

_"Ahem," he awkwardly cleared his throat, trying to change the subject. "It seems the evening is upon us, and I suggest you make dinner sometime before the next sunrise," he laughed again..._

She awoke again to the chiming bells of the clock tower outside. The moon was shining through her window, her dream leaving her as she sat up. Again, she felt she was being pulled out of a giant haze. She recalled being given a shot before falling asleep-

She realized, with a start, that the shot was what kept her from forgetting.

Luckily for her, the effects didn't seem as strong as they use to feel. Maybe she was developing immunity to them. She guessed from earlier that maybe asking questions wasn't the best idea. If she dared ask the nurse anything again, she was sure that she would get injected with the same liquid stuff again. She would have to go on silent and pretending not to know anything as usual. Maybe she would get her memory back.

She lay back down on her bed, trying to recall the dream she had just had. As with most dreams, she couldn't remember every little detail. What she did remember was the feel of the afternoon sun against her skin, the softness of her armchair; a major contrast the bed she lay in every night.

More importantly, she remembered a man.

She remembered a man with the most peculiar features. She remembered not being afraid of him as others seemed to be. She couldn't recall any words he said to her, but she could sense he was gentle. He was tough, but fair. When he looked at other people or things, she saw a void in his eyes, but when he looked at her, she saw something else... Something she couldn't decipher. But she loved the way he looked at her.

With his eyes in her mind, she fell back to sleep.

...

The last few months were a giant blur. Her plan to keep silent had worked. She never spoke up around the nurse when she retrieved her for her bath. She pretended to be interested in something else by staring at a random spot in the room like a crack in the cement wall, or the bubbles floating above the soap bucket. This seemed to please the nurse because she carried on as normal.

_Was I really this dazed out before_? She thought to herself with worry.

She would go back to her room and carry on as usual, sitting on her bed and staring off into nothingness. When neither the nurse nor the woman was around, she would stand up on her bed and glance out the window, paying more attention to what happened outside. She could only ever see feet due to her living underground and all. She watched all of them with envy; people walking around with all of the freedom in the world, going anywhere they pleased. What was so different about her that she had to stay locked up in a building 24/7?

She listened when people got close enough to her window to hear what everyone talked about. It was mostly "town gossip", and usually it was either people complaining about a "Mr. Gold" who was always coming down hard on rent, or people would talk about a new girl that came into town named Emma, and how she was developing a reputation to getting on the mayor's bad side. Apparently, the mayor's son was adopted and Emma was the birth mother. It didn't seem like anyone hated her. They liked her more than the mayor, actually. And now she was the sheriff of the town after the last one passed away.

When she wasn't eavesdropping on townsfolk, she was dreaming of the same man from her first dream.

The Dark One, she had called him; even though he was nice to her in her dreams, his aura was dark.

Whenever she dreamed, she couldn't remember any details just like the first time. She would only get a sense of things. The only strong detail she took out of it was the Dark One. His facial reactions, his mannerisms, and the way he glided across the floor when he would stand next to her. She remembered the happy feeling she got whenever he was near. They would have conversations in her dreams, but she never remembered them. She couldn't even recall the sound of his voice. It would drain from her mind as she woke up every day.

The worst part was that she didn't know his name.

Try as she might, she could never remember it. She wondered briefly if she had known this person before she was sent to live in this room for God knows what reason. She wondered if the dreams she had were actually memories she relived every time she slept. What if he was the one the nurse and the woman wanted her to forget about? The thought made her sick.

She had made a promise to herself that she would work extra hard to remember as much as she can from her dreams. She was determined to remember his name...

...

The sun outside was blocked by clouds filled with rain that wouldn't fall. She sat on her bed, arms hugging her knees to her chest, feeling the gloom of the weather outside seep into her pores.

Earlier, she listened to a couple pairs of feet in nurse shoes talking by her window about the latest events of the town. It seemed that a young couple who had just had a baby ("_out of wedlock_" scorned an older voice), had got engaged the previous night; on Valentine's Day of all days. She also heard them talking about the cruel Mr. Gold being locked up in jail for beating a florist half to death with his cane. They both agreed that he deserved more than a jail sentence for the way he treated his tenants. One of them joked about going down to the station and taking a picture of him behind bars for blackmail.

The girl didn't care for either of them though. All that she cared about was the Dark One.

Once again, she unsuccessfully brought back nothing from her dream that could lead to the man's identity. The place in her mind where she kept every detail of him was locked, and she couldn't find the key. She scolded herself for this. If he was truly important to her, she _should_ know who he was to her.

A metal clang brought her back to cruel reality. She slowly looked up to see the woman's eyes smirking darkly at her through the flap as usual. There was something different, she noticed, about the look she gave her. She looked as if she had won something; a silent parade marching behind her dark pupils and heavy eye shadow. For a moment, she thought she was going to open the door and inject her with more of that green liquid. Instead, to her relief, the woman dropped the lid, and her crisp footsteps fade into the background.

Something about that reaction brought a strange feeling into the pit of her stomach.

_Hope_, she decided.

She didn't know where this hope had come from all of a sudden, but she held onto it like a lifeline. The need to escape this place; to explore the world just like the people on the outside grew more and more. It was the only thing that would keep her sane.

She had no way of doing this by herself. She didn't know enough of the outside world to escape, and she was sure that if she tried, the woman and the nurse would probably kill her.

She had only one choice: She had to wait for her Dark One

If the Dark One cared enough about her as much as she thought he did, he would find her and take her away from this place.

It was that hope that kept her going.

**~fin!**

**Wow! That was actually a lot harder to write than I thought! But it was worth it.**

**Thank you guys for taking the time to read this little thing. I also have a little poll for you:**

**I will list this story as complete since the original idea was this be in two parts, but if you guys are interested in a bonus chapter, let me know in the reviews. The bonus chapter would be both Rumpel and Belle's POV during "A Land Without Magic". I am willing to write this, but if I do, I will only write up to a certain point because... Well, you RumBelle fans remembered how that episode ended.**

**So I will ask two things then: Do you want a bonus chapter? If yes, do you want me to end it at Mr. Gold's shop or in the forest just as the curse breaks. I will leave it all up to you.**

**Thanks again, and remember to review if you want your vote to count!**


	3. BONUS: Their Happy Ending

**Okay, so my evil plan to get more reviews backfired, lol. Oh well, at least I got one saying they wanted another chapter (Thanks again maizeblue7). I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did writing it :)**

**DISCLAIMER: Again, I don't own this show or it's characters!**

**They're Happy Ending**

She heard noises upstairs. She had been hearing them all night. The sounds of sirens and people rushing around frantically echoed through her ceiling. They first started coming from outside and escalated into the building above her. Although the voices were muted and she couldn't hear any conversation, she still heard the distress that hung in the air.

For a brief moment, she wondered what was going on. Hopefully nothing serious had happened to anyone around her. Sure she didn't know anyone else aside from the nurse and the woman, but that didn't mean she never worried about the strangers who'd stand outside her window and gossip about the town all day. Nonetheless, it was getting late, and she could feel sleep begging to take over.

She heard footsteps. It wasn't the sound of clicking heels that echoed whenever the woman was there. She figured it was either the nurse or the janitor making their usual rounds through the basement.

Just as she closed her eyes, the door to her cell open.

She was lying down on her bed with her hair over her face. She leaned up propping on her elbows. She knew it wasn't the janitor because of his thin shape; obviously wasn't the woman. For a moment, her breath caught in her throat. Was it her Dark One? The man she had dreamed about for the past several months? Had he finally come to save her?

The figure stepped further into the room, letting the moonlight highlight the features the bright hallway obscured. No, this wasn't her Dark One. Unlike the leathery skin and curly, sand-brown hair of her dream hero, this stranger dark brown, styled hair. His skin was slightly pale due to lack of sunlight, and he wore a male nurse's uniform. She felt breathe release from her lungs disappointed. Still, she was intrigued by this new face she had never seen before. Would she still be able to escape?

Answering her unspoken question, the man stepped to her bedside and held a hand out to her. "Come with me," he beckoned gently.

As if on reflex, no doubt trained to obey anyone wearing a uniform, she placed her hand in his and he helped her to stand. Something was different about him, she noticed. He didn't have a cold, hardened expression like the nurse she'd known for so long. The look in his brown eyes showed concern.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice tight in her throat from refusing to speak so as to avoid anymore needles. "Why are you doing this?"

"My name is Jefferson," he replied, "And I need your help to do something that I can't." He paused a moment, giving her the chance to let it sink in. "There is a man; his name is Mr. Gold."

She gave him an odd look. She had heard that name mentioned a few times outside her window. All she knew from what she heard was that he was a greedy man who took pleasure out of charging rent (Whatever that was).

"Find him," Jefferson instructed, interrupting her thoughts. "All you have to do is tell him where you've been, and that Regina locked you up."

She blinked a couple of times, feeling confused. "W-what?"

"It's very important," he insisted. "Mr. Gold's gonna protect you, but you have to tell him Regina locked you up," he paused again. "He's gonna know what to do," he nodded assuring. It seemed though he was trying to convince himself more of that fact than trying to convince her. "Do you understand?"

The girl nodded, a flicker of joy bubbling up in her stomach. "Yes," she answered. "I-I have to find Mr. Gold."

Satisfied with her answer, Jefferson handed her a jacket and helped her sneak out of the hospital.

_I wonder if he could help me find my Dark One_, she thought to herself.

...

Mr. Gold set the golden egg on top of the counter in his shop. As he stared down at it, he felt a little ashamed that he left the library without telling Emma that she could wake her son up without the potion. As quickly as it came, he pushed that feeling to the back of his mind; she'll figure it out soon enough.

He went to his drawer where he kept all of his tools and pulled out a little golden key. It had a layer of dust on it from where it had sat in one spot for twenty-eight years. He stuck it in the keyhole at the bottom of the egg and turned it quickly.

He opened the egg up and pulled a round vile out of the navy blue cushion; true love. He gazed at the shining pink liquid inside, recalling the days he managed to get a hold of Snow White and Prince Charming's hair. Of course, they royals didn't know this ultimate goal of his to begin with.

_The time has finally come_, he thought with the shadow of a smile on his face. He was going to bring magic to this cursed town. He was going to finally find Baelfire.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the bell above his door ringing. He quickly pocketed the potion and placed the golden egg into a small wooden chest on the back wall.

"Excuse me," a female voice called from behind him. "Are you Mr. Gold?"

He rolled his eyes. Of course he'd finally get a customer just as the town's curse was about to break.

"Yes, I am," he answered," But I'm afraid the Shop's closed."

He turned at the last second and froze.

A woman stood in front of the curtain between his shop and office. She wore a hospital gown underneath a gray and red coat. Her brown hair was disheveled and in need of a brush. Her eyes, bright and blue, were questioning.

It was Belle. _His_ Belle.

"I was a-" she started to say, stepping further into the office. "I was told to find you and..." she trailed off a moment, her nerves obviously jumbled.

Mr. Gold could only stand there. His jaw had dropped and his eyes widened. _This can't be_, his mind told him. _You're just dreaming_.

"..and tell you that Regina locked me up," she finished.

His legs, developing a mind of their own, took a step forward. He realized he had forgotten to breathe. He forced himself to exhale and inhale, his eyes beginning to water.

"Does that mean anything to you?" she asked. If she was aware of how startled he was, she was ignoring it.

He stopped just a couple of feet in front of her. Hesitantly, he reached out the hand not holding onto the cane for dear life and grasped her shoulder. His breath hitched in his throat.

She was here! He was wide awake and she was actually standing right in front of him.

"You're real," he choked out, gently squeezing her shoulder as if fate was about to play a cruel trick and make her vanish into thin air. "You're alive."

Belle looked up at him suspiciously. What she said earlier started to sink in: _Regina locked me up_. "She did this to you?" he asked, a root of hate growing at the pit of his stomach for Madame Mayor.

_Of course_, he scolded himself. She was the one who told him her father tortured her; had clerics cleanse her soul, jumped out of the tower and died. It shouldn't have surprised him that she was lying, but it did anyway. For all he knew, she probably didn't even make it back to her father's village before the Queen took her away.

"I was told... you'd protect me," she said in the tone of a question.

And just like that, her voice vanquished murderous thoughts for the time being.

"Oh yes," he sobbed, and grabbed her in a desperate hug almost dropping his cane. Tears began to spill down his face. She still had Belle's scent of sunshine and roses, but it was slightly muted by the foul hospital scent. "Yes, I'll protect you," he assured her, still sobbing.

And he meant it, too. He would protect her with his life. He would cast protection spells and hire millions of henchmen if it kept the Evil Queen away from his Belle.

"Um, I'm sorry," she apologized, causing him to pull away from her. "Do... Do I know you?"

He could finally see it. He saw the blank mask that everyone else in town wore thanks to the curse. She had no idea who he was. She didn't remember the months they shared in Dark Castle; the chipped cup, falling off the ladder into his arms, the kiss-

A new set of tears spilled over his cheeks. "No," he shook his head regretfully.

He was suddenly aware of the true love potion in his jacket pocket, pressing against his rapidly beating heart. Emma should be on her way to the hospital any moment now. All she had to do was let her love for Henry take over and the curse will break.

"... But you will," he assured, a sprout of hope coursing through his being.

...

It took her most of the night to find Mr. Gold. She was distracted mostly by the town. There were so many things that were completely foreign to her. She had never seen, or remembered, anything like it. She was too nervous to ask anyone in the street where she could find the man Jefferson had her searching for. When she was about to give up, she had spotted a sign that said "Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop".

_Sounds about right_, she shrugged.

When she entered the shop, she saw a man who looked somewhere in his mid-forties with shoulder length, sand-brown hair that grayed at the ends. He wore a sharp suit and walked with a cane.

There was something very familiar about him. She had trouble placing him. She had his name on the tip of her tongue, but couldn't quite taste it.

The way he reacted to her raised her suspicions. He knew her. He had to know who she was. When she asked him, he told her no, but that she _would_ know him. What was that suppose to mean?

Just as quickly as she arrived, Mr. Gold had her following him out of the shop and into the dark depths of town. They were in a vast forest, and the sun was just peeking over the treetops. She realized she hadn't been to sleep yet; the adrenaline from escaping the hospital and finding the pawnbroker was what kept her from dropping to the ground like a broken tree branch. She walked a few paces behind Mr. Gold who was doing well overcoming the rocky terrain despite his handicap.

She concentrated on his features. She was trying to remember where she had seen him before. She could feel that block in her mind again, forcing her from remembering anything. She didn't think that was still happening. She hadn't been injected with any green liquid for months. Wasn't that what kept her from remembering anything in the first place?

The weather was still that day, barely a cloud in sight. There was a light breeze that was starting to pick up around her. A giant wind rushed through all of a sudden and left just as quickly as it came.

She stopped. The wind that passed through her blew down the locked door in her mind. A flood of memories flipped through her mind like pages of a book flipping back and forth. Everything was coming back to her.

Her name... _Belle._

Her loving father... _Maurice._

The village where she grew up...

The ogre wars... "_Our forces are slowing down_!"

The deal she made... "_I will go with you, forever_."

The Dark Castle... "_I'm in need of a caretaker for my... rather large estate_."

The man with the leathery-gold skin-

"Wait," she called to Mr. Gold who kept on walking.

"No yet," he called back, not turning around. "We're very close."

His voice, Belle noted, was very different. No longer the high-pitched teasing voice she knew so well. She had heard it before, but only for a brief second-

The kiss... "_True love's kiss will break any curse_."

His face was clear in her mind, putting two and two together...

It was _him_!

Her Dark One!

"Rumpelstiltskin, wait," she tried again, the name slipping off of her tongue.

He stopped this time. He slowly turned to face her. His skin wasn't dark gold anymore. He looked more like the man she used to see inside back at Dark Castle.

She took trembling steps towards him; he did the same meeting her half way.

"... I remember," she told him, joy bubbling up the surface of her stomach.

A nervous expression donned on his face, afraid of what she'll say next.

"... I love you," she admitted, trying in vain to hold back tears.

A smile broke out on Rumpelstiltskin's face, and he caught her in another tight hug. This time, she hugged back.

She closed her eyes and smiled, a tear escaping from her watery eyes. After all of those years locked up in the dungeon and then the psych ward, she finally found Rumpelstiltskin! She had prayed and prayed they would find each other even when she didn't remember who he was! The curse over them had broken, and true love claimed them both.

"I love you too," he whispered, saying the words she long waited to hear.

They knew this moment wouldn't last forever. There was still the magic Rumpelstiltskin wanted to bring back, the Evil Queen (Who would _surely_ be enraged once she discovered her 'trump card' was missing), and the curse of the Dark One still consumed him.

But for one moment, one shining moment of bliss, all that mattered in this cruel and cursed world was each other.

**The End**

**...And then Rumpelstiltskin kind of ruined the moment... Yeah.**

**Thanks to everyone for taking the time to review/follow this short story. I really liked writing from Rumpel's point of view more than I thought I would. **

**Have a good day!**


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